“Education is the kindling of a flame, not the filling of a vessel.” ― Socrates

We have been told over and over again that life is the greatest school ever, and that is absolutely true. As entrepreneurs, we are on an ongoing quest for a greater success and achievements. Therefore, we must be committed to lifelong learning and growing.

Of course we learn a big deal out of our mistakes and failures, but if you want to live a remarkable life that exceeds all expectations; then you have to learn from other people’s mistakes as well. Simply because no matter how long you live, you won’t have enough time to do all mistakes by yourself!

Wise people learn from everybody and everything. They consider every day as a gift and a chance to learn and grow. They learn from friends, babies, birds, waterfalls and even stones!

A couple of years ago, I came across a wonderful philosophy for success. The idea was so simple yet so profound that I pondered on it for a long time. It is the Ant Philosophy as narrated by the late motivational speaker and coach, Jim Rohn. It had a huge impact on my life and the lives of many others; for that reason I wanted to share it with you to give you a fresh boost of motivation and to inspire you to take substantial action toward your goals.

Here is the short list on the Ant Philosophy:

1. Ants Never Quit

If they’re going somewhere and you stop them or block their pathway they’ll look for another way; up, down, all around. How long will they keep looking? Until they find another way. See, that’s good philosophy – the Ant philosophy.

2. Ants Think Winter All Summer

That why ants appear to be on a hurry all summer. Go go go – why? Winter winter winter . .hurry hurry hurry . . The clock is running out, time is running out. Hurry hurry, get the food, bring it back, bring it back. The winter is almost here . . hurry hurry hurry. That’s a good philosophy!
Think winter all summer, don’t think summer all summer and get faked out; look how lovely and look how nice. Ants don’t do that.

So be careful; do NOT build your house on the sand during the summer. You have got to think storms when the weather is nice. You should build your house on  rocks because the weather will not stay nice long.

3. Ants Think Summer All Winter

In the winter you’ve got to say: we won’t be in here long – we’ll soon be out of here. We’ll be out there working and gathering more food providing for the future. Winter won’t last long; we’ll soon be out of here.

So the key is to think summer in the winter and think winter in the summer. Think negative when it’s positive and then think positive when it’s negative. Isn’t that a challenge? The answer is yes that’s a challenge; but that’s life, that’s the DEAL!

How often does winter follow fall? Every year!

Do you know how the next ten years are going to be? About the last ten! Winter follows fall, summer easy and summer hard, summer difficult and summer simple. Then spring follows winter. It has been so for at least 6,000 years of recorded history; so it isn’t going to change.

We can’t rearrange the coming of winters. But here’s what we can do: be stronger, wiser and better – so that we can survive better and our life will be less eroded by learning to handle the next winter. The next winter of a crisis, a divorce, a death of a close one, a financial lose etc.

The essence of life is: OPPORTUNITY MIXED WITH DIFFICULTY. That’s about as simple as you can put it. Sometimes there seems to be more difficulty that opportunity. It does! Then it turns and there’s more opportunity than difficulty. The key is to take advantage when the opportunity comes in excess. Take advantage, build the city, build the economy and build everything.

I leave you now with the original sound recording of Jim Rohn explaining the Ant Philosophy and I hope you enjoy it.

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Photo: Charlie Stinchcomb

So what do you think? Did the Ant Philosophy resonate with you? feel free to share any ideas or comments you want.